


Testing 1, 2, 3

by PlayTheAce (thinkofthings)



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: AH OT6, Developing Relationship, M/M, Minor Character Death, Portal AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-17
Updated: 2014-09-17
Packaged: 2018-02-15 12:19:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2228775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thinkofthings/pseuds/PlayTheAce
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rooster Teeth Labs is doing great. They're pioneering in all kinds of semi-legal science, including artificial portals, potentially fatal human testing, weirdly behaving goo, and AIs.</p><p>Unfortunately, they may not have looked into last one enough.</p><p>Fast forward a bit, and six cryogenically frozen test subjects are all awake at once. But how will a paralyzed scientist, a construction supervisor, a security guard, a kid plucked off the streets, and two unlucky interns get out of a facility controlled by a test-crazy robot?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. prologue: not so failsafe

**Author's Note:**

> This is in fact my first RPF ever posted and I'm nervous. Please please send me constructive criticism and any ideas. While the main plot is mostly planned out, the details are not and suggestions are always welcome.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryan’s a scientist at Rooster Teeth who’s only trying to keep the resident AI from killing everyone.
> 
> Too bad that doesn’t work out so well.

Ryan Haywood hated his job.

He hated the disregard for potential- and probable- horrible failure. He hated all of the idiots who worked on this godforsaken project with him. Most importantly, he hated _EDGAR_. The name technically stood for Electronic Directory  & Guidance Anthropopathic Robot. Ryan was pretty sure that someone just really thought it'd be cool to have a robot named Edgar, and, yeah, okay, he'd admit it. The name _was_ pretty great, and butler-ish, like JARVIS or some shit. But, still, he wasn't the one to make or name the thing.

Yet somehow, he was the only one that realized how bad the AI really was.

EDGAR was terrifying. Ryan could feel that glowing white eye on him at all times, as if it had chosen him specifically to watch. Sometimes the AI would whisper things to him, the chilling, robotic voice casually telling Ryan how horrible of a person he truly was. And whenever Ryan happened to walk past some of the glass testing chambers, he couldn’t help but notice that way all the turrets would slowly turn their search lasers towards him. No one believed him when he commented on the behavior, but that was probably because it only happened to Ryan. And _that_ was probably because of what Ryan had made.

Ryan had created the corrective cores.

They were his masterpieces. Three personality cores: 6R1FN, C41-T, and M39. They were his pride and joy. He’d poured all of his efforts into making them as wonderful and moral as possible, going so far as to slightly base them off of a couple of his favorite coworkers. His girls were no-nonsense and efficient with their jobs. While most other scientists scoffed at the idea that anything could possibly go wrong with EDGAR, someone high up had decided to give Ryan’s thoughts some attention and had allowed Dr. Burns, the AI’s main programmer, to connect the three cores to EDGAR’s mainframe. It had something to do with wanting to make sure that the creation they'd spent millions of dollars working on worked, and something to do with the fact that Ryan had agreed to make the cores for free. Ryan frankly didn't give a damn about not getting paid, just caring about keeping EDGAR as contained as possible. He had sworn to the committee that the cores would work perfectly and had made it his duty to keep his promise.

So he talked with the cores often, making sure they weren’t corrupted and that they were still reasonable. That was their job, after all, keeping EDGAR in check and making sure that nothing went wrong, so making sure their morals were right was essential. So far, it’d been a flawless system. Of course, he knew everything would fuck up in the end.

o0o0o

It was 6R1FN that he first noticed something odd about. It wasn’t that there was a malfunction with the core herself, quite the opposite in fact. ‘Griffon,’ as Ryan often referred to her, was made to notify him to slight irregularities in EDAGAR’s behavior, and the edginess he’d noted in her during a check-up conversation had done just that. Ryan had immediately gone to notify his higher-ups of the oddity, and they’d assured him that they’d check up on EDGAR.

o0o0o

C41-T was in charge of watching EDGAR’s direction to the rest of the facility carefully. Two days after the talk with Griffon, she’d whispered to him that EDGAR had moved the two creative cores, AX-E-L M47 and JRM-E, to a different building area.

"I am watching them carefully to see what he is making them create. So far it looks like another testing chamber, but it was not ordered by anyone in Rooster Teeth…"

"Thank you, Caiti. Could you go bring that to Mr. Pattillo’s attention?" Ryan smiled at the sleek-looking core, and she’d glowed gold at the praise before streaking off in search of the resident construction supervisor. Immediately after, Ryan noticed a bright purple light blinking for his attention. "Yes, Griffon?"

"You need to call Dr. Dunkelman again. EDGAR’s behavior is still out of the ordinary. He has been more… sadistic than usual. He has taken to incinerating corrupted turrets rather than sending them to the mechanics to diagnose problems."

Ryan frowned, eyebrows drawing together. “That should’ve been fixed by now. I’ll personally find Dunkelman and talk to her about this. She should be in tomorrow. Thank you.”

o0o0o

Ryan did find Dunkelman, but it hadn’t mattered. All it took was another day for everything to go to hell.

He’d entered the break room with purpose, scanning the room for Dunkelman’s blonde hair. She was a young, new scientist, though a brilliant one, and perhaps didn’t understand the urgency behind EDGAR’s monitoring, but there was no time like the present to explain it to her. He eventually spotted her laughing with Dr. Zech in the corner and quickly strode over.

"Barbara, I think we need to discuss something." Ryan tried his best to sound calm, though he was always a bit edgy when it came to EDGAR. She seemed to sense that and immediately said goodbye to Dr. Zech before turning back to him.

"Yeah, what’s up?"

"Did you check up on EDGAR like I asked?" Ryan raised an eyebrow at Barbara’s confused look. "The cores say something’s still wrong with him."

"I thought I fixed that." Barbara frowned. "What’s wrong with him this time?"

Before he could answer, the lights shut off.

Someone shrieked, and a panicked murmur ran through the room. The emergency control system started to speak, tinny voice muttering a stream of unhelpful advice and not-very-calming words. "Do not panic. If there is a fire, please find the experimental Rooster Teeth extinguishers. Do not confuse them with the experimental Rooster Teeth igniters. If there is an earthquake, do not worry. The structure of the building will protect you. If it does not, it will not matter to you for long. If this is a-"

“RYAN HAYWOOD!”

Ryan didn’t hesitate to sprint out the door of the break room at the sound of the distinctly female voice of the interrupter. The gathering of scientists immediately parted for him, eyes wide and frantically trying to figure out what was happening. After all, everyone knew that when M39 spoke, they were all fucked.

o0o0o

All of the fluorescent lights were out, but the emergency lights flashed quickly, intermittently making the room eerily bright. Most people seemed to have been in the break room or at testing sites or had went there once the lights went out to figure out what was wrong, and the hallways were entirely empty. Ryan's footsteps echoed in the emptiness, his breathing loud in his ears. Soon that changed, as the emergency lights had apparently been going on long enough that the sirens began screeching through the building. Ryan forced himself to go even faster.

He ran to the closest room that the cores could enter, not stopping for anyone, his path lit by the flashing white emergency lights. As soon as he threw open the door, M39 was right in his face.

"He has found something wrong, Ryan! He found a hole in the connective programming, he is trying to bypass my input, he is going to take over and I do not know what to do!" The pink core blinked, almost blindingly, in Ryan's eyes, and his first thought was that he didn’t realize a robotic core could look and sound so panicked. His second thought was one of pure, unadulterated terror.

"Is there anything we can do? An override or something?" Ryan asked breathlessly, trying to think past the fear. The core lit up like she was about to reply, but then the worst thing Ryan could imagine happened. M39’s light went out and the core slumped down on the overhead rails like her power had been shut off.

And then the gas started to seep in.

o0o0o

Ryan pulled M39 from her mount, and his terror nearly took over when she slipped off easily. It could only mean that she had shut down, an added feature in case of repairs. He dropped the core when he heard screaming from down the hall, but that was quickly cut off by the calm robotic voice of EDGAR.

"Please do not panic, everything is perfectly normal. Please disregard the green gas and breathe deeply."

Immediately Ryan held his breath, but he knew it was no use. The gas was getting thick enough that the room seemed to be filling with a green haze, so he left the small space, forgetting about the core. He raced down the hall where there was more oxygen and towards the break room, only to find the metal door shut. When he tried to open it, it wouldn't budge, no matter how much he turned or slammed his body into it. People inside kept yelling and a few even replied to his attempts with banging, but the noises and struggling were dying down quickly.

Ryan internally winced at his wording.

He gave up when the yelling and thudding became too weak and he started to taste the gas on his tongue, holding his breath again. In a final attempt to save his own life, he tried to get to the exit, cheeks puffed out and chest burning, but he soon found that the hall to the outside world was sealed off by a safety barrier reminiscent of the test chamber doors. With his lungs screaming for air, he was forced to breathe in.

The blackness set in more quickly than he’d expected.

If only he’d convinced them to use LND-C when he had the chance.


	2. bad sportsmanship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack wakes up and quickly wishes he didn't.
> 
> Geoff hates everything, except maybe the man on the other side of the glass.

"Test log 1,636. Test subject 311 has failed test chamber 7. Test subject 312 has been awoken for solo testing. Test subjects 313 and 314 have been awoken for competitive testing."

Jack woke up to the sound of horrible beach music and a robotic female voice. He sat up from the odd contraption he'd been laying on and glanced around the little room, faced with only white, strangely glassy walls and a little table in the corner. The voice spoke pleasantly in the background as he stood and got his bearings. "Hello and welcome to the Rooster Teeth Science Computer-Aided Enrichment Center." Jack found the source of the music in a little, oddly-shaped radio in the corner. "We hope your brief detention in the relaxation vault has-"

The voice was suddenly interrupted by static, and Jack glanced up in confusion. After a moment, the static was replaced by a different voice, this one male and oddly calm, though still somewhat robotic. "Hello, Test Subject. I am EDGAR."

Jack opened his mouth to reply with a simple 'Hi, Edgar.' and maybe an added 'My name's actually Jack.' However, he only got as far as the H sound. Jack was screaming before he knew what was happening, but it didn't take long for the pain to flood his system. Shock after shock coursed through his body, volts of electricity making his muscles seize up and spasm. Tears dripped down his face and hit the cold, tiled floor that he had collapsed on, and Jack couldn't do anything to stop it. He could see the electricity coursing through the room and into him, and there was no escaping it.

The clear voice of EDGAR sliced through the cacophony of Jack's pain. "Test subjects are reminded to refrain from speaking unless they are in a cooperative environment. Which you are not. In fact, you are in the opposite."

The shocks stopped concurrently with the voice, and Jack was left gasping on the ground, the faint, peppy music echoing in his ears. EDGAR paid him no mind and continued his tirade near-seamlessly.

"You are participating in a competitive testing situation. You and your rival will be attempting to complete the same-" EDGAR paused for a moment before making a strange, metallic sound. It took Jack, still rattled, a second before he realized it must be a 'tsk'. "As previously stated, non-cooperative testing subjects should not speak. It is especially rude to interrupt."

Jack frowned in confusion, because he hadn't spoken, hadn't even opened his mouth. It wasn't until he heard a faint but very human screech that he realized what must have happened. Apparently, his so-called 'rival' must have been hearing the same introduction as him, but hadn't gotten the same shock and therefore hadn't learned his lesson. Judging from the screaming, EDGAR hadn't taken kindly to a second mistake.

Jack was so terrified that he didn't realize he'd curled in on himself on the floor until the muffled screams had faded completely and EDGAR had begun yet again.

"-to complete the same testing chambers, and your performance will be evaluated based on each other. The 'points' that you earn will be totaled at the end of the testing, at which time the person with the most will go on to solo testing and the loser will be properly euthanized. Of course, if one of you perishes during testing the other will win by default and move on. If you understand, continue hyperventilating."

Jack then realized he was in fact doing just that, probably due to the words 'euthanized' and 'perished,' and tried to calm himself. However, no matter how hard he tried, Jack couldn't have possibly calmed himself down in the few seconds that EDGAR gave him for answering.

"All parties understand. Please proceed to the antechamber, where you will be given your Handheld Portal Device."

Jack couldn't have moved if he'd tried.

o0o0o

The soft sound of the metal doors opening was enough to pull Geoff out of his pain-induced stupor. He lifted his head and pushed himself up, feeling nothing to remind him of the voltage that had been coursing through him except for a little bit of soreness. At least, he's pretty sure everything else wrong with him was just from panic, not electricity.

Either way, Geoff was only barely able to force himself to his feet and stumble through the open doorway.

The screaming he'd heard before still echoed in his head, and now that he knew what it was from he didn't feel much better. He would have thought that having someone else endure the probable hell he'd be facing alongside him would give him some sort of sick satisfaction, but in all honesty he didn't gain any relief whatsoever. He'd also been going on the assumption that working for Rooster Teeth for as long as he had had ruined his moral compass, but apparently that wasn't the case.

Geoff looked around the large, gray-and white-walled room. To one side of him was a glass wall that showed a mirror image of his side, but no one in it. He supposed his rival must not have joined him yet. He was surprised he'd made it as far as he had, honestly. His legs were still shaking from the shock (both electric and psychological). He took another wobbly step towards a pedestal in the middle of the room that held up a strange object that Geoff somewhat recognized. He knows the name and he saw the blueprint a long time ago, when Gus had been drunk, loud, and far too intent on showing off his latest pet project. He'd never thought that Gus had actually made it.

Or maybe he hadn't. Maybe EDGAR had made the idea a reality long after he'd murdered Gus and every other one of Geoff's friends from Rooster Teeth.

All those brilliant minds, gone. And fucking _Geoff_ left alive. He guessed life was really never very fair.

He let out a deep sigh and made himself walk forward, gingerly picking up the Portal Gun and smiling to himself at how pissy Gus would be if he could hear Geoff call it that. He slipped it on, messing with the triggers he feels inside. A bright green light flashed out of the device and Geoff jumped back, startled.

His eyes followed the path the light took to a white wall, where there was a glowing oval about his size. He frowned and pulled the other trigger, pointing at another wall. Sure enough, a bright orange light shot out, creating an actual fucking _portal_.

He laughed out loud and couldn't stop himself from mumbling a soft, "Fucking _Gus_." As payment, a sharp jab of low voltage shock ran through him, but Geoff had been tased multiple times, both from his younger days and to become a security guard. He handled it withe just a stumble and a grimace.

He turned to the glass on his left and sighed before walking over. With the hand not holding the Portal Gun he started to bang on the glass, and when that didn't get a response he started kicking for good measure. Still no response. With a huff, he tried to grab the security camera pointed at him, but it was a bit too high. He grumbled and angrily shot a portal at it. He didn't expect anything to happen and was surprised when the portal knocked the camera off the wall. He pulled the third trigger and practically squealed when the camera was lifted up. Thinking for a moment, he decided his best course now was to repeatedly slam the camera into the wall.

He guessed he shouldn't have been surprised when the loud, reverberating _crack_ of metal on glass actually brought his 'rival' out of the relaxation pod. Hey, what works works, right?

o0o0o

When the loud noises finally snapped him out of his panic attack, Jack kind of wanted to cry.

The feeling didn't pass, but he still stood and stumbled out of the little room and into a much bigger one. His first observation was the strange pedestal with some mechanical _thing_ , and his second was the horrifyingly familiar smirk and waving tattooed arm on the other side of a glass wall.

"Geoff?" Jack gasped, and then inhaled sharply at the current that ran through his veins. _No talking._ Got it.

The smirk widened and the hand pointed toward the contraption in the center. Geoff waved his left arm, which was stuck inside of a duplicate of the same gun, making it obvious what he wanted Jack to do. Jack nodded and walked over, mind still reeling. Mostly because that was _Geoff Ramsey_ , the security guard who had greeted Jack every morning with a muttered "'sup, fucker" and a middle finger, who had waved off any apologies about lateness with a promise not to tell, who had given Jack his own coffee when he felt the other had needed it more. Geoff, Jack's favorite person at Rooster Teeth, stuck here with him in the worst kind of hell possible.

Jack picked up the device and slipped in over his right hand, turning to Geoff with a confused look. The other man grinned and raised his own gun. Then Jack leaned down and picked up the two boot-like things with oddly shaped rods and waved them at Geoff uncertainly, to which Geoff also looked confused. With a shrug, Jack pulled them onto his feet and found that walking was strange but easier somehow, lighter. He watched as Geoff did the same and ten jumped for good measure. Jack tried that, too, and realized that there was no impact pain whatsoever. Fucking _sweet_. Geoff waved again to get his attention and then waggled his eyebrows suggestively before indicating the gun, promoting Jack to lift up his own. What followed was a surprisingly difficult portal lesson, in which both parties silently learned about their devices and tried to tell each other what they knew with sign language that they didn't understand.

And after the most terrifying hour of Jack's life, Geoff Ramsey made him laugh without speaking a word.

o0o0o

Any joy they felt was incredibly short lived. There was a slight buzz of the speakers, and then EDGAR's voice rang out through the chamber.

"Now that you have gotten... _well acquainted_..." It was so strange to hear a metallic voice drip with such disdain that Geoff almost thought he was imagining it. He wasn't. "Proceed to the first testing chamber."

He turned to give Jack a reassuring smile and almost laughed when he saw the bearded man already trying to do the same to him. What a fucking teddy bear. With a wink, he turned and marched towards the exit, but not before sneaking one last look at Jack to keep him going. He just had to survive a test chamber. How hard could that be?

When he walked through the round door and hear the _shink_ of the metal slamming behind he, he saw just how hard it could be. Unlike what Joel had once told him they did to test subjects, EDGAR did not start them off easy. In fact, Geoff felt as if he was looking straight at his own death. Fucking perfect.

He bit his lip, ducked under the bright red laser in front of him, and got to work.

o0o0o

It's times like these that Jack wished he'd never, ever signed that contract with Rooster Teeth. He wished he had denied the job, no matter the pay, that he'd realized that maybe the company's morals and practices actually would affect him and that, with what he knew of them, he didn't want that to happen. He wished that Joel hadn't suggested it and that Matt wasn't so convincing and that Burnie wasn't so funny and, most importantly, that he hadn't gotten the crush on a pretty scientist that made him want to hang around a bit longer.

Hell, it was never worth it. He hadn't even gotten Dr. Haywood's number, and here he was shooting gray and dark blue portals on walls to survive some fucked up test made by a fucked up robot. What the hell?

Thank God he knew Geoff was alive. He had no idea about any one else, but if Geoff was here, maybe others were too. Maybe they weren't alone, maybe there was at least some hope in this hellhole of a research center. Or maybe Jack was grasping at straws. Optimism was always a strong suit of his.

Jack lifted his arm, steadying the Portal Gun and carefully firing what he prayed was the last portal he'd need. Thankfully he had plenty of physics knowledge and planning ability from being an architect for years before accepting Rooster Teeth's proposal or he would probably have never gotten past the first one. Because holy _shit_ EDGAR sure didn't go easy on them for their first chamber.

Jack stepped through the portal and sighed with relief when, to his left, the exit door was opened and a blue screen glittered like water waiting for him to enter. He quickly went through, only to see Geoff about to step through a door on the opposite side of the room. Jack lit up and waved, jumping like a child, only for Geoff to spot him and immediately do the same. They met in the middle, no glass between them this time, and Geoff didn't hesitate to throw his arms around Jack, who quickly returned the affection.

"Stop touching. What are you doing? Go into your respective tubes now to proceed to the next chamber."

Jack pulled back at EDGAR's voice, realizing what the AI meant after he looked around and spotted the two colored elevator tubes, one blue and one green, in the middle of the room. Geoff still had a hand on Jack's arm and flinched at the realization that this reunion was going to be incredibly short lived. Jack was a bit more concerned about the 'next chamber' bit, sucking in a deep breath and trying not to cry.

How long was this going to last?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this'll be the way the next batch of chapters will be set up. I'm so sorry about the testing descriptions, I really wanna focus on the plot rather than the details. Next up is Michael and Gavin as cooperative test subjects. I can do a lot of backstory and explanation in that one and not much between the two, or I can spread out background info and focus on their relationship. You guys pick :)


End file.
